Dr. Parag Khanna

Dr Parag Khanna is a leading Indian-American global strategy consultant, world traveller and bestselling author. He is also the founder (2025) and CEO of AlphaGeo, the leading AI-powered platform for geospatial predictive location analysis, and Managing Partner (2018) of FutureMap, a data- and scenario-driven strategic consultancy. Dr Khanna is an expert in international relations and is regarded as one of the most impressive geo-strategists, having visited more than 150 countries. He is a CNN expert on globalisation and geopolitics.

He served as an adviser to the US National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 programme; he was born in Kanpur, India, and grew up in the United Arab Emirates, New York and Germany.

In 2017, he was awarded a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellowship by the Robert Bosch Academy. In 2016, he served on the Singapore Government’s Committee on the Future Economy. In 2008, Dr Khanna was named one of Esquire’s ‘75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century’ and one of fifteen individuals featured on WIRED magazine’s ‘Smart List’.

He was honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and served as a member of the WEF’s Global Future Council on Mobility and the Global Agenda Council on Geoeconomics. In 2007, he was a geopolitical adviser to the United States Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr Khanna was also part of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign team. In 2008, he was a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.

His bespoke roadmaps offer pragmatic guidance to decision-makers in business and organisations around the world.

Dr Khanna graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School at Georgetown University and was also enrolled at the Free University of Berlin from 1991 to 2001. He was awarded a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Many people believe that borders no longer matter today. Dr Khanna argues that they do. Using maps from both the present and the past, he explains the root causes of global border conflicts and offers a simple yet intelligent solution for each one.

Dr Khanna is quoted in the media worldwide. He compares the role of the state in the 21st century with the situation in the Middle Ages: “Rising powers, multinational corporations, powerful families, philanthropists, religious fundamentalists, universities and mercenaries are all part of the diplomatic landscape.” Dr Khanna describes the smart interaction between the state, the economy and society as “mega-diplomacy”.

Dr Khanna makes it clear that, within the space of just a few years, the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century has changed dramatically. New constellations are suddenly conceivable – or are already a reality.

He gives presentations in English, German, French, Spanish and Hindi.